PHOENIX HOPE LENDS A HELPING HAND IN GUATEMALA

Rio Dulce, Guatemala- A group of 10 PHI volunteers recently traveled to Guatemala to help build 30 new desks for the preschool and kindergarten classes at Casa Guatemala. The new desks were badly needed as the children had been using school desks that were much too large and in such poor condition that many fell apart as we removed them from the classrooms. The desks were designed by Eric Blaser (Kaysville, UT ), to be easily manufactured at low cost and assembled using mostly local materials. In addition, the group donated all the necessary tools and worked closely with the staff at Casa Guatemala during the planning and building process in order to ensure the technical plans and skills would remain at the school for its future needs. In fact, thanks to all the help from the local crew, the project went so smoothly we were able to build enough desktops for over 50 desks in total. We hope to duplicate the desk project in other schools and potentially develop it as a source of revenue for the facility management crew at Casa Guatemala. Working hand in hand with our friends at Casa Guatemala, PHI is working to further its mission of promoting sustainable community development.